In today’s fast-moving business environment, how many times have you heard: “Sorry, I’m too busy!” It is a sad fact but how busy are we really? Indeed, many people put in long hours. They are certainly dedicated but how efficient are they? More often than not, people do not prioritise their activities and get overloaded with mundane details.
Here are some quick tips that will help prioritise work and which will lead to more efficiency, less stress and more accountability. In order to focus on the essential, organize your activities in four simple categories.
Urgent and important
Action is necessary because activities in this category will prove to be essential not only for the good of the business in general but will help keep deadlines.
It also improves the knock-on effect experienced by colleagues and subordinates who have a role to play in the bigger picture.
The actions under this heading are usually characterized by important deadlines and if the latter are not met, unfortunate consequences will be the result.
One example is providing an input which is vital for a major decision to be taken. This is especially true for projects where inter-dependency of team members is essential.
Not Urgent but Important
These activities are more strategic in nature, requiring more thought and possibly the involvement of subject experts.
Due process will have to take place to gain the commitment of key stakeholders.
Quality time needs to be devoted to these activities as ultimately, they will migrate to the first category.
An example is the re-engineering of a product portfolio to ensure market share growth and meeting the expectations of ever more demanding clients.
Urgent but not important
You may wish to consider delegating these activities to a competent administrator.
Make sure you choose someone who has demonstrated a punctilious attention to detail.
You will be delegating to peoples’ strengths and the probability of expediting these activities with precision will be increased.
An example of this is responding to an overdue query on a minor issue.
Not urgent and not important
These activities should be scrutinized because they will constitute the bulk of unnecessary interference that will lead to a waste of time and will make people “just busy”.
An example is shifting through all the emails that are copied “for information only”, that results in so many emails copied to so many people that create confusion as to who has to do what.
Streamlining communications so that only those who are accountable get a copy should be the rule.
In order to increase productivity, it is well worthwhile asking yourself in which category does your activity fall. Simply prioritizing activities will cut through the chaff and help you focus on what you really have to do, rather than keeping yourself busy with unnecessary clutter.
Over a period of time, things will look simpler, more focus will emerge, details will not be overlooked and teamwork will be of the essence. These will lead to increased productivity, less frustration and stress and a higher sense of achievement and pride.
*** Extract from The Straits Times (RECRUIT), Thursday, September 04, 2008
Here are some quick tips that will help prioritise work and which will lead to more efficiency, less stress and more accountability. In order to focus on the essential, organize your activities in four simple categories.
Urgent and important
Action is necessary because activities in this category will prove to be essential not only for the good of the business in general but will help keep deadlines.
It also improves the knock-on effect experienced by colleagues and subordinates who have a role to play in the bigger picture.
The actions under this heading are usually characterized by important deadlines and if the latter are not met, unfortunate consequences will be the result.
One example is providing an input which is vital for a major decision to be taken. This is especially true for projects where inter-dependency of team members is essential.
Not Urgent but Important
These activities are more strategic in nature, requiring more thought and possibly the involvement of subject experts.
Due process will have to take place to gain the commitment of key stakeholders.
Quality time needs to be devoted to these activities as ultimately, they will migrate to the first category.
An example is the re-engineering of a product portfolio to ensure market share growth and meeting the expectations of ever more demanding clients.
Urgent but not important
You may wish to consider delegating these activities to a competent administrator.
Make sure you choose someone who has demonstrated a punctilious attention to detail.
You will be delegating to peoples’ strengths and the probability of expediting these activities with precision will be increased.
An example of this is responding to an overdue query on a minor issue.
Not urgent and not important
These activities should be scrutinized because they will constitute the bulk of unnecessary interference that will lead to a waste of time and will make people “just busy”.
An example is shifting through all the emails that are copied “for information only”, that results in so many emails copied to so many people that create confusion as to who has to do what.
Streamlining communications so that only those who are accountable get a copy should be the rule.
In order to increase productivity, it is well worthwhile asking yourself in which category does your activity fall. Simply prioritizing activities will cut through the chaff and help you focus on what you really have to do, rather than keeping yourself busy with unnecessary clutter.
Over a period of time, things will look simpler, more focus will emerge, details will not be overlooked and teamwork will be of the essence. These will lead to increased productivity, less frustration and stress and a higher sense of achievement and pride.
*** Extract from The Straits Times (RECRUIT), Thursday, September 04, 2008
2 comments:
This is a great valuable post.
Thanks for the heads-up.
However, you might wanna fix up the readability a little bit. I was having such a hard time trying to read that because of the size of the font and also the background.
Thanks for your advise. I'll try to fix up the readability. During these day i'm busy a little.
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